Islands out of time

Crossing the volcanic terrain to the coast on the Galapagos, a place where life thrives despite inhospitable land.Hans Tammemagi

A salty lightfoot crab hitches a ride on a marine iguana.Hans Tammemagi

A Marine Iguana.Hans Tammemagi

A Galapagos tortoise ambles along, oblivious to the photographer.Hans Tammemagi

A cormorant shows off its colour on the Galapagos Islands, a protected environment made up of 13 major islands, six minor islands and several islets. — Hans Tammemagi
A cormorant shows off its colour. Hans TammemagiHans Tammemagi

It is not their fiery volcanic birth that has brought the equator-straddling Galapagos Islands fame.

Instead it is their isolation, which, as Charles Darwin famously noted, has led to rapid evolution, resulting in the most remarkable displays of wildlife on this planet.

To protect the fragile environment, authorities declared 97 per cent of the islands a national park.

Thus, most islands are in their natural state, with no hotels, resorts or amenities. The only way to visit is by boat, which explains why I and 55 others were aboard the comfortable Galapagos Legend.

Passengers were divided into four groups; I was placed with the Boobies, as in blue-footed boobies.

After orientation, we clambered into inflatable rubber dinghies and motored to Santa Cruz Island.

Soon we were in the highlands near the island’s centre, among immense, lumbering tortoises with shells about three to four feet across. A cowbird perched nonchalantly atop one.

We approached a tortoise with a creased, wizened face.

Our guide, Indira, studied its shell and announced, “He’s about 150 years old.”

She also warned us not to touch them. “These tortoises are amazing and can survive a year without food or water. They were almost hunted to extinction because pirates and sailors of yesteryear would cram them into the ship’s hold so they could have fresh meat during their voyages.”

These islands — 13 major, six minor isles and numerous islets about 1,000 kilometres west of Ecuador — formed as the Pacific tectonic plate inched eastward over a deep volcanic hot spot.

The western islands, which are still over the hot spot, are geologically young with volcanic activity and barren volcanic rock.

The older, eastern islands have had time for erosion to develop soil, which fosters life, at least as much as such a hot, arid place can.

Evidence of recent volcanic activity abounds. We entered the dark interior of a lava tube, a long circular tunnel, about six metres across, which formed when a river of lava flowed down the slope. The outside cooled and hardened while the hotter inside kept flowing until the long tube was empty, forming this curious wormlike feature. During the night, the Legend carried us to Santiago Island.

Next morning, our dinghy deposited us on a golden sand beach occupied by hundreds of glistening sea lions. Males snorted and preened, possessive of their harems, mothers nursed and cared for young, others simply sunned themselves.

And all of them ignored us visitors, who walked among them in awe, cameras clicking.

Just off shore, pelicans and blue-footed boobies patrolled the sky and every few moments one transformed into a svelte dagger and plunged into the water after a fish.

At the end of the beach, where layered lava rocks jutted into the ocean, we witnessed what appeared to be a confrontation.

A pelican stood atop a black rock, like the king of the castle.

Its long beak pointed diagonally down directly at a black, metre-long marine iguana, which looked like it had come from the Paleozoic era and was slowly climbing upward to conquer the pinnacle.

Dozens of bright red and black Sally Lightfoot crabs were scattered on the rock like spectators, a few small ones even riding on the iguana.

A nearby boulder was dotted with hundreds of bright red crabs, as though an artist had splattered neon-red paint against the black lava.

We followed a trail along the coast, which was barren, dusty and dotted with large lava cacti. Indira was adamant, “Please do not touch or feed any wildlife, and stay on the trail.” Miraculously, where the inhospitable land met the ocean, life thrived thanks to the rich plankton brought by ocean currents. We saw thousands of black marine iguanas lounging lazily together, often flopped right on top of each other. Indira explained that they swim and seek food in the sea and then later, back on land, blow saltwater out of their nostrils. Sea lions sprawled on sandy beaches. Crabs dotted every rock, and flotillas of birds wheeled overhead.

Each evening, after an adventure-filled day and a sumptuous buffet dinner, I was drawn outside onto the deck. In the water below lay a spooky spectacle: dozens of sleek, shadowy forms — sharks! — attracted by the ship’s lights. They cruised slowly around, ominous and powerful. Occasionally a sea lion would pass by, frolicking and playful. Now and then a dolphin flitted past. They all seemed on friendly terms.

Over three days we visited several islands and went on numerous outings, with one incredible surprise following another. On one tour, we strolled through a colony of blue-footed boobies, passing nests of jumbled twigs, youngsters covered in fuzz and males conducting intricate courtship dances. Right next door was a huge nesting area for great and magnificent frigate birds. Males puffed out large bright-red throat pouches, like balloons, competing with one another to impress females. Nearby, herons and pelicans perched.

At a coastal pond, elegant pink flamingos waded, their long necks bent forward and their hooked beaks often poking under water, seeking food. We saw yellow warblers and, of course, the ordinary-looking finches, whose beaks helped Charles Darwin decipher the processes of evolution. In one cove, several pairs of Galapagos penguins walked about upright like tuxedoed maestros. Why are these penguins here on the equator, I wondered, rather than in Antarctica?

Life under water, I discovered when snorkelling, was just as incredible. Floating gently along, I encountered schools of colourful fish ranging from minnow size to 30 centimetres in length. Large turtles nibbled at seaweed on rocks. Their movements underwater, unlike on land, were as graceful as ballet dancers. A young sea lion swam just below and rolled upside down to get a better look at me with its big, curious eyes. Occasionally, a shark slid past looking lethal like a stealth bomber. I wasn’t re-assured at all by Indira’s words, “Don’t worry about sharks, they’re harmless.”

At Bartolome Island we followed a boardwalk through a landscape devoid of vegetation and climbed 374 steps to the island’s summit, Pinnacle Rock, with stunning views of spatter cones and different types of lava laid out in the soft oranges of late afternoon sun.

Each night we recounted the astonishing sights we had seen — as Darwin and his companions must have — marvelling at the incredible range of size, colour and shapes life can take. As the blazing sun dropped into the sea, we toasted these fantastic volcanic islands and their unusual menagerie.

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Islands out of time

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